The boys and I just checked the weather radar to see if the rain will be ending soon — and to see if birds are migrating south towards our “No Child Left Inside” block party. If you look at this weather radar image from the Chicago Tribune‘s website, you’ll see the answer should be yes on both counts:
The green-and-yellow streaks and blobs around and southeast of Chicago are rainstorms. The green circles north and west of Illinois are night-migrating birds taking off and flying south. The animated version of this image showed storms (and migrating birds) moving to the southeast, through Chicago.
Why are birds on the move? Because winds blowing from the north help migrating birds make their southward journeys. Here’s a wind map to show you what we mean:
This map shows wind patterns at about the same time as the radar image, above. By morning we may have five to ten mile-per-hour north winds blowing through our neighborhood, just west of Chicago.
Overnight north winds may bring smaller birds like warblers, flycatchers, and thrushes to our block party. The night-migrating birds will land near sunrise and then spend the morning searching for food. If north winds continue through the day we may see some hawks migrating overhead.
Of course, north winds bring cool air, so temperatures at tomorrow’s block party may only reach the low 70s. (The neighborhood kids won’t be running under the sprinklers like they have some years.) However, our 7:30 a.m. nature walk may turn up some interesting birds, and we’ll keep our eyes and ears open for fall migrants throughout the day.
Dickcissels are small birds usually found in tallgrass prairies and unplowed farm fields. (As my friend Jane reminded me, “The character Laura in the book Little House on the Prairie watches Dickcissels flit in the tallgrass.”)
So this morning I was quite surprised to find one feeding in the brushy corner of our pocket-sized backyard in south Oak Park, Illinois! With their yellow-and-black breasts and stripy brown backs, Dickcissils look like miniature Meadowlarks:
The back-and-yellow breast, yellow-and-white eye stripe, and gray on the side of the head and neck identify this bird as a male Dickcissel.
However, our Sibley Guide groups Dickcissels with the tanagers, grosbeaks, and cardinals. Sibley also says that Dickcissels sometimes hang with House Sparrows, as this one was today. In fact, when they turn away, Dickcissel backs look a lot like House Sparrow backs:
The Dickcissel's back reminds me of a House Sparrow's back. However, the yellow on the eye stripe and the gray coloring on its half-turned neck give it away.
I guess it pays to look at every bird that visits your yard — you never know what will show up! It also pays to have a brush pile in your yard, however small. (Ethan repaired our brush pile earlier this spring.)
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Note added at about noon the same day:
I checked the eBird website to see where Dickcissels have been seen in our county. The closest location to us is Miller Meadow, a few miles west of here, where they have been seen in June and July the past two years. I wonder if they have nested there, since the habitat seems appropriate? (See this Illinois Birders’ Forum post for more information about Miller Meadow and nearby locations.)
And wouldn’t it be cool if this male Dickcissel found his way to the meadow habitats in Columbus Park, less than a mile east of our yard?
Note added 2 p.m. the same day:
Jill Anderson, who monitors Miller Meadow for eBird, just posted a report on IBET. She said she stopped by Miller Meadow today and saw a male Dickcissel — the first one she’s seen there this year. She also confirmed that Dickcissels have nested there the past few years.
Note added a week later: On Saturday, June 6, we made our first to Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, south of Joliet, Illinois. The place was packed with singing Dickcissels, especially near the Explosives Road Trailhead! (See this map. Midewin used to be part of the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant.)
We hope our backyard Dickcissel found a place like Midewin to spend the summer.
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To learn more about Dickcissels, please visit these websites:
All About Birds: For a basic description of this species, with photos and song recordings, go here.
Wikipedia: For an encyclopedia-style entry, go here.
Dickcissel Conservation in Venezuela: Because they migrate to South America during our winter, protecting this species is an international issue. Go here to read more.
Yesterday’s Chicago Tribune weather radar showed birds migrating away from our neighborhood. (Go here to see it.) Today’s early morning radar showed birds landing in Chicago:
The green "doughnuts" are night-migrating birds flying north near radar installations. The green disappears as the sun rises and the birds land for the day. Image from the Chicago Tribune's online weather page. (The radar shows a real storm system over northern Michigan.)
Notice how, after all the green disappears over land, there is still green over Lake Michigan. That’s because birds who find themselves migrating over water at sunrise have no place to land. This next image shows what happens on the radar as these birds head for the closest shore:
Watch the green over Lake Michigan slowly disappear as birds migrating over water head for the closest land. This radar image ends an hour later than the one above -- the over-water migrants will be extra tired once they come to Earth.
So, our neighborhood should have some newly arrived migrants this morning, and parks and neighborhoods along the Lake Michigan shoreline should be packed with newly arrived birds. It will be interesting to read today’s online reports from places like Montrose Park in Chicago.
As always, we’ll let you know what we see and hear in our neighborhood.
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Note added at 7:45 a.m. the same day: So far we have heard no warblers singing in our yard. We did just hear a Gray Catbird singing one or two backyards to the south — they had been gone from our neighborhood for several days.
Note added at 9:45 a.m. the same day: The day’s first report on Montrose birds has been posted on the Illinois birders e-mail list. It stated, “Montrose was pretty good this morning, finally. Obviously last night’s southwest winds did some good.” The report listed 21 species of warblers. (A report from yesterday listed 17 species.)
This spring we’ve been tracking the overnight migration of birds using the Chicago Tribune‘s online weather radar. (For examples of earlier posts, go here and here.) Last night’s weather radar showed migrating birds headed north, but we’re afraid more birds left our area than arrived on the southerly winds. Here’s the Midwest radar image from early Sunday night:
The green circles on this radar image are birds taking off and heading north, starting at about 9 p.m. Chicago time. Many more birds are migrating on the western (left) side of the map. There were lots of birds taking off from our neighborhood in the Chicago area.
The image shows much more migration in the Mississippi valley (on the left side of the map) than in Ohio and eastern Indiana (on the right). Looking at a map of wind patterns, we can see why:
Overnight there were strong winds from the south over the Mississippi Valley (on the left side of the map), but weak winds to the east. (Midwest regional wind map from the Chicago Tribune's weather page).
To see why the winds blew this way, we can check the Midwest weather map for early Monday morning. It shows a high pressure area centered over northeast Indiana:
The Chicago Tribune weather map from early this morning shows a high pressure area ("H") centered over northeast Indiana. Winds blow clockwise around a high pressure center, roughly paralleling the white lines of equal pressure (called "isobars").
Winds blow clockwise around a high pressure area, which is why the winds blew from the south over Illinois and states to the west and north. Winds were calm near the center of the high in eastern Indiana and Ohio. Because birds in these areas did not have southerly winds to help their journey north, they stayed where they were.
Now lets look at the radar image from near sunrise. It shows migrating birds landing as sunrise shifts from east to west across the map:
The green circles shrink as the sun rises and migrating birds come in for a landing. The image shows few birds landing in our neighborhood, near Chicago. (This Chicago Tribune radar image runs from 5:00 to 5:50 a.m. Chicago time.)
The radar image shows few birds landing in our neighborhood just west of Chicago. Lots of birds took off from here last night, but few landed here this morning. It seems last night’s migration took birds away from our neighborhood, but did not replace them with new birds from the south.
So, what does this mean for bird watching in our neighborhood? For one thing, it’s been very quiet this morning. For the past few weeks we’ve been hearing warbler songs at sunrise, but I’ve heard none so far this morning. Maybe it’s the cool weather — the temperature was only 41 degrees at 6 a.m. — but I suspect we’ve got fewer migratory birds in our neighborhood this morning.
Today we’ll keep track of the birds that visit our yard in south Oak Park, and I’ll take a walk to nearby Columbus Park on the west side of Chicago. Check back tonight for a report on what birds we find — and what birds have left our area.
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Note added at 9:15 a.m. the same day: As we were getting ready for school, we heard a Rose-breasted Grosbeak singing across the alley and an Eastern Towhee singing a few backyards to the south. So, there are still a few migrants around our neighborhood. However, we still have not heard a warbler singing this morning.
Note added at 8:00 p.m. the same day: Well, we never did see or hear a warbler in our yard today — they have left our block, at least temporarily.
The first warbler I heard today was a Tennessee Warbler singing in the Harrison Street Arts District at 10:20 a.m.as I walked to Columbus Park. I identified only seven species of warbler in Columbus Park this morning, plus there were a couple of warbler-like songs I could not identify with certainty. That’s compared with the 25 warbler species we found there during the Spring Bird Count nine days ago. After school we made a quick trip to Humboldt Park in Chicago to see a rare duck (Surf Scoter) — we saw only five species of warbler there.
This could all change tomorrow. Right now there are south winds blowing up from central Illinois and Indiana, and they should keep blowing overnight. If there are birds down there that didn’t migrate last night, they could take off and arrive here this morning — or maybe they’ll pass right through to Wisconsin.
Saturday was Spring Bird Count day in Illinois, and our family counted birds at several Chicago-area parks and west-side locations. Our most impressive finds were at Columbus Park, where we recorded 80 species for the day!
My son Ethan (aged 13) describes the Columbus Park part of our day on his new blog, nicknamed “OCB” for “Obsessive Compulsive Birding.” His first post is here:
When we returned to Columbus Park just before sunset Aaron and I found birds number 79 and 80 for our Columbus Park list: Orchard Oriole and Downy Woodpecker. Aaron also may have seen a Connecticut Warbler, but we couldn’t nail down that identification.
For the entire day of birding we found 92 species. That’s not a bad day for city birding, especially when you don’t have any large lakes, marshes, or mudflats in your count area.
So I guess this goes to show that you don’t need to travel far to see great birds during the migration season. A place like Columbus Park provides a range of small habitats where migrating birds can stop over and refuel for the rest of their journeys.
We’ve been having a great time birding in our neighborhood this week, but the boys were begging to go farther afield to search for year birds unlikely close to home. So, after making Ethan sleep in so he’d recover from his cold, we headed north to Lake County, Illinois. Our first stop was Waukegan Beach, where we saw the Tricolored Heron that’s been hanging there for several days. We also met some other birders, who told us they’d seen an American Avocet and nine Willets at the farthest north beach in Illinois. After seeing first-of-year Bank Swallows and Purple Martins flying over the Waukegan beaches — but not seeing Willets — we decided to head to Stateline Beach.
When we got there at 12:15 p.m., all the Willets were gone, but the Avocet was swimming just offshore. Unfortunately it was scared off by beachwalking humans before Ethan could get photos. We watched it fly eastward and then land about 150 meters out. It swam for 10 minutes or so until the coast was clear, and then flew back to the beach:
After getting scared off by beachwalkers, the American Avocet waited off shore. It flew back to the beach once the coast was clear. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
The boys slowly crept close enough to get some semi-decent, identifiable photos. After ten more minutes of Avocet watching, we left in search of other year birds.
We found three year birds at the south unit of Illinois Beach State Park — Yellow-throated Warbler, Clay-colored Sparrow, and Veery — but no Willets. So, we returned to Stateline Beach at 4:30 p.m., hoping that morning’s Willets had returned. No such luck. The Avocet, however, was still there, in the same place we’d left it. After a couple with a small dog approached within 50 meters of the Avocet without scaring it away, the boys crept a bit closer than they’d been before, and got somewhat better photos. (Ethan’s Sony DSC-H50 kept focusing on seawalls and sand rather than on the bird.)
The American Avocet mostly stood or swam in shallow water. It did not feed while we were watching. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
We also saw a Cliff Swallow on our second visit the Stateline Beach. That was the boys’ eighth year bird for the day. With any luck our trusting Avocet won’t get eaten overnight and will still be there Sunday morning.
On the way home we looked once again for Willets at Waukegan Beach. We later read on IBET that we’d just missed a flock of more than 80 Willets. Willets may become our nemesis bird of 2009.
Here are some photos of two other year birds for May 2, 2009. To start, here’s our best shot of the Tricolored Heron:
We couldn't get close enough to get a good photo with Ethan's camera. However, this shot shows that the Tricolored Heron looks like a smaller, darker version of a Great Blue Heron. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
Here are a couple of photos of a Veery we saw along the Dead River Trail at the south unit of Illinois Beach State Park. There were two Veerys along the east section of the trail — the part that goes through the woods — in a pool behind the first bench.
The Veery is a kind of thrush. This view shows the Veery's reddish-brown upper parts. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.This view shows the faint spots on the Veery's breast. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
Finally, the boys saw their first baby Canada Geese of the spring. (I saw my first ones yesterday at Columbus Park.)
These hatchling Canada Geese were with their parents at North Point Marina. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
Our out-of-town bird visitors have been exploring every aspect of Oak Park’s urbanized habitat. The past few days they’ve been partying in the streets. Maybe they got tired of the traffic, because Thursday afternoon we watched warblers on our neighbors’ rooftops. Ethan captured a Yellow-rumped, Pine, and Palm Warbler in a single view:
From left to right, Yellow-rumped, Pine, and Palm Warblers on a neighbor's roof. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.They've shifted positions. Now it's Pine, Yellow-rumped, and Palm Warbler. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.By zooming in on the Pine Warbler, we can see it's white wing bars, the brown streaks on the side of the breast, and the white under its tail and belly. The Yellow-rumped Warbler's "butter butt" is obscured by the Pine Warbler's head. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
That wasn’t all we saw today. When he was taking out the recycling at about sunset, Aaron saw two Swainson’s Thrushes and a Gray-cheeked Thrush in the alley. Other than Robins, they were the first thrushes we’ve seen on our block since last fall. Unfortunately, they didn’t stick around for photos.
We also got no photos of the Pine Siskins that visited our backyard thistle sock for less than a minute. I watched the female feed for about 20 seconds. She chased off a male Siskin who tried to land beside her, and then she left before the boys made it to the back window. We hadn’t seen Siskins in our backyard since the day before Christmas.
Overall, it was a great day for neighborhood birding, and we were sorry to see it end. We saw or heard 30 species without leaving our block, including seven species of warbler. To see the full list, please visit the eBird page for our yard and block.
The winds are from the southwest tonight — tail winds for any birds that migrate northwards. I wonder which new birds may arrive overnight, and which ones may leave the neighborhood?
We’ve been hearing a clear, sad, whistling song in our back yards for the past few days, and the neighbors have been asking about it. There are lots of other bird sounds these days, but this one really stands out. There are several variations. One version has the first note lower than the rest, like this recording. Another has a similar melancholy quality but a bit more melody, like this recording.
The bird that sings this song is a small, brownish and grayish sparrow. It looks unremarkable from a distance but has a stunning head if you see it close through stealth or binoculars. It’s called the White-throated Sparrow:
Adult White-throated Sparrows have a white chin, black-and-white cap, and a bit of yellow in front of the eye.
It happens every year at about this time: Migrating birds take a day or two off in our neighborhood and hang out in the streets, like a Block Party for the Birds:
Yellow-rumped Warblers feeding on South Elmwood Street, until the next car comes along. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
Instead of peering up into the leafing-out trees to see warblers, we look down in the gutter:
A male Yellow-rumped Warbler searching for food in our street's gutter.
Instead of beating the bushes to see native sparrows, we wait patiently until they fly out to the pavement:
Chipping Sparrow taking a bath in the gutter on South Elmwood Street. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
There were lots warblers and sparrows at our block party, and many more birds were in the streets elsewhere in south Oak Park. Why? We’re guessing it’s because ripening American Elm seeds were knocked to the asphalt by wind and rain, along with many of the bugs that feed on new tree flowers and leaves:
A Yellow-rumped Warbler searches for bugs in a gutter filled with elm seeds. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
The most abundant warbler species was Yellow-rumped Warbler — the boys counted at least 30 individuals on our block. Palm Warblers were also common in the street — we saw at least a half dozen of them. The best street warbler was an Orange-crowned Warbler, a year bird for us (which would not sit still for a photo). We also saw Pine Warblers and a Northern Waterthrush in trees and on the grass, but not in the street.
The most abundant sparrow on the street was, of course, the House Sparrow, which we hardly count because it’s not native. On our block Chipping Sparrow tied with White-throated Sparrow for the most common native sparrow, but on other blocks White-throated Sparrows won out. Our best street sparrow was a Savannah Sparrow, the first we’ve seen on our block:
We spotted one Savannah Sparrow on the street, the first we had ever seen on our block. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
We also saw a White-crowned Sparrow right before the rain. Our Block Party for the Birds was cut short by that rain about an hour before sunset. Check back on Tuesday afternoon — we may have more photos. Until then, drive carefully! (Maybe next year we’ll get permission to close the street.)
Note added Wednesday, April 29, 6:40 a.m.: Tuesday was much colder (mostly upper 40s), and there were few birds on our street for most of the day. Then, as we were preparing to leave for a trip to Columbus Park after school, 7 Yellow-rumped Warblers showed up on the street and nearby sidewalks and even a rooftop.
It seems the pavement party had moved to Columbus Park, although most of the revelers were Palm Warblers. There were several groups of 8 to 10 Palm Warblers on the Park’s asphalt and cinder paths, along with a scattering of Chipping Sparrows and a single Yellow-rumped Warbler.
Note added Wednesday, April 29, 5:30 p.m.: The cold continued today, but I saw at least a few small flocks of birds in the street. One group had a half dozen Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Palm warbler, and a Chipping Sparrow (plus the usual House Sparrows and a Starling).
First stop: Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Chicago. Driving into the park we met our friend Paul, who told us he’d seen a Laughing Gull flying towards the harbor. After searching the harbor, harbor mouth, pier, beach, and open lake for more than an hour, we finally found the Laughing Gull sitting on a dock in the middle of the harbor. Here’s the dock, looking west from the entrance of the sanctuary:
The docks at Montrose Harbor. The red arrow shows where we finally found the Laughing Gull.
And here’s the bird, resting with some Ring-billed Gulls that sometimes moved and blocked our view:
The Laughing Gull (with black head) is resting in the center of the photo. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
The bird was too far out for Ethan to get good photos with his Sony DSC-H50 camera. For the record, here’s a digiscoped image, that shows its black head and dark gray mantle (back and folded wings). If you look closely you can also see its heavy, dark red bill and the broken white ring that surrounds most of the eye:
The Laughing Gull is resting in front of a somewhat larger Ring-billed Gull.
The time spent searching for the Laughing Gull was not wasted, because we found lots of other great birds. Ethan got a photo of a Common Loon near the entrance to the harbor:
The Common Loon swam close, attracting the attention of both birders and fisher folk along the shore. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
Also during our search at Montrose, I saw my first Barn Swallow of the year. Aaron and I watched a Wilson’s Snipe take flight from the dunes. As we followed it through our binoculars, we saw a Peregrine Falcon chasing it, then giving up half way down the beach. And, as the radar predicted, we saw many recent migrants to our area. Most of these birds we had seen earlier this spring at Columbus Park (like Hermit Thrush, Brown Thrasher, Swamp Sparrow, and both kinglets) or on birding trips to central Illinois (like a Vesper Sparrow near the beach). We couldn’t find the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher that Paul and others had seen earlier that morning.
We were also pleased to meet many of our birder friends exploring Montrose, plus a few followers of this blog. It was great to see lots of beginning birders, including some on a bird walk sponsored by Science Chicago. (Like many new birders, we still carry our field guide almost all the time, but it’s really worn, and we open it less often).
After a quick stop at North Park Village Nature Center to buy me some new binoculars at the Eagle Optics special sale, we headed south, then east to Indiana. This part of our trip was inspired by posts by Jeff McCoy on the Indiana birders e-mail list. Our first stop, south of I-80 in Gary, Indiana, produced an Eared Grebe, plus many ducks. The Grebe was a year bird for us, but it was way too far out to get a photo. Our next stop was on U.S. 30, a mile or so east of its intersection with Indiana 39. We looked at a series of flooded farm fields along the highway and nearby gravel roads:
Ethan and Aaron scanned the field for shorebirds -- and found hundreds of them!
We finally had the mass shorebird experience we’ve been searching for all spring — hundreds of Pectoral Sandpipers foraged at the margins of the “fluddles” (as birders tend to call them):
Can you find all seven Pectoral Sandpipers? We found several hundred of them. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
Here’s a closer view, showing the distinctive pattern on the chest:
Birders use size, bill shape and color, leg color, steaking on the chest, and several other features to distinguish Pectoral Sandpipers from similar, related species. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
The smaller overall size, paler mantle, and smaller black bill help distinguish this resting Bonaparte's Gull from the Laughing Gull we saw earlier today. Photo by Ethan Gyllenhaal.
We still had several hours until sunset, so we headed south and then west through Indiana. We didn’t find any new birds at first, but we did see some really beautiful pigs grazing along the road. We also got our first bug spatters on the windshield, and Ethan got his first mosquito bite of spring.
We ended up at Willow Slough, near Morocco, Indiana, just before sunset, where we heard our first Bobwhite of the year. After sunset we drove near a marsh, just sat in the car, and listened. We heard Spring Peeper peeping, American Toad trilling, and American Woodcock mating calls. Then, finally, the boys heard what we had been listening for — the grunt of a Virginia Rail in the distance. (I, unfortunately, was on the wrong side of the car.)
We finally reached home at about 10:30 p.m. And when Aaron gets home from Sunday School, we’ll probably hit the road again, despite the threat of rain.
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So, tomorrow the kids go back to school, and I’ll have a week of Big Green birding to catch up with new birds near our home and at Columbus Park. This morning I heard White-throated Sparrows singing from the neighbors’ backyards. I wonder what the warm winds later this week will send our way?
Neighborhood Nature 